The Words Of The Wise Are A Wellspring Of Wisdom, But A Fool's Words Result In Misery For Him, And Finally Bring About His Ruin (Proverbs 18:3-7).
As with the previous subsection, this subsection majors on the fool (the one who leaves God out of the reckoning). The subsection begins with a reference to ‘the wicked' (the unrighteous), referred to twice (Proverbs 18:3 a, Proverbs 18:5 a) who is paralleled with two references to the fool (Proverbs 18:6-7). Possibly of significance is the fact that in the immediate context ‘the wicked' has referred to the one who accepts a bribe to pervert justice (Proverbs 17:23), which helps to explain how he is seen to express contempt for society. So let the wicked approach and then comes contempt. But in the end all it brings on him is disgrace and the reproach of his community.
This is then followed by four proverbs, three of which specifically refer to speech. The words of a man's mouth (as opposed to the mouth of the wise) are as deep waters (Proverbs 18:4); a fool's lips enter into contention and his mouth calls for beatings (Proverbs 18:6); a fool's mouth is his ruin, and his lips are a snare trapping his person (Proverbs 18:7). In contrast the mouth of the wise is called ‘the wellspring of wisdom' (Proverbs 18:4). This may suggest that we are to see the wicked man in Proverbs 18:3 as expressing his contempt by his words, and especially by his lying and dishonest tongue (Proverbs 17:23), whilst the taking note of the person of the wicked and the turning aside of the person of the righteous in judgment might be seen as referring to a dishonest judge's verdict. Both, in Solomon's terms, are the work of a fool, or even worse, a worthless person.
The subsection is presented chiastically:
A When the WICKED comes, contempt comes as well, and with disgrace comes reproach (Proverbs 18:3).
B The words of a man's MOUTH are as deep waters, the wellspring of wisdom is as a fast flowing river (a wadi) (Proverbs 18:4).
C To respect the person of the WICKED is not good (Proverbs 18:5 a).
C (Nor) to turn aside the righteous in judgment (Proverbs 18:5 b).
B A FOOL'S LIPS enter into contention, and his MOUTH calls for beatings (Proverbs 18:6).
A A FOOL'S MOUTH is his destruction, and his LIPS are the snare of his life (Proverbs 18:7).
Note that in A the unrighteous man comes, bringing his contempt of society with him, only to be disgraced resulting in the reproach of the community, whilst in the parallel what the fool says brings ruin on him, and his lips act like a snare for him. In B the words of a man (other than the wise) are as deep waters, and in the parallel they result in contention and in him being beaten. Centrally in C it is not good to show favour towards the person of the unrighteous, or in the parallel to dismiss the righteous.
‘When the wicked comes, contempt comes as well,
And with disgrace (ignominy) comes reproach.'
The approach of the unrighteous can only be viewed with foreboding, for he brings along with him his contempt for society. He sees their customs as too restrictive. You never know how he is going to behave. Thus he does not hesitate to manipulate justice for his own benefit (Proverbs 17:23), he engages in violence as a way of becoming wealthy (Proverbs 1:10-19; Proverbs 10:6; Proverbs 12:6), and he ignores society's insistence on hard work (Proverbs 6:6; Proverbs 10:3-5), seeing it as unnecessary. He walks in the way of non-good (Proverbs 4:14).
But he does not get away with it. He soon finds himself in disgrace with society and comes under their reproach. Society does not like those who rock the boat.
Some would translate as ‘when wickedness comes, contempt comes as well' which involves repointing the original consonantal text. This might signify that the contempt is that of the community to wickedness, signifying that they see it as a disgrace, and cover it with reproach.
‘ The words of a man's mouth are as deep waters,
The wellspring of wisdom is as a fast flowing river (a wadi).'
In the light of Proverbs 18:3 we might see this as referring to the mouth of the unrighteous man, an interpretation which may be seen as supported by the parallel fact that the mouth of the righteous is a wellspring of wisdom. Further support is found in the contrast between the deep waters and the fast flowing river. To the Israelite deep waters were usually something mysterious, whereas the fast flowing wadi was welcomed as supplying water for the crops. This is to some extent backed up by Proverbs 20:5 where we read, ‘counsel in the heart of a man is like deep water, (unfathomable and difficult to extract), but a man of understanding will draw it out'. In Psalms 64:6 deep hearts belonged to those against whom God would act. Accepting this view would mean that the words of most men, including the unrighteous and the fool, were to be seen as something mysterious and unfathomable, which were at the best difficult to draw on, and at the worst sinful, whilst the words of the righteous, as a wellspring of wisdom, were to be accepted as welcome and fruitful. Elsewhere this wellspring is described as a wellspring (abundant source) of life (Proverbs 10:11; Proverbs 13:14; Proverbs 14:27; Proverbs 16:22).
An alternative is to see ‘deep waters' as being neutral, the idea being that some men's words (those of the righteous) are thirst quenching and fruitbearing, whilst other men's words (those of the unrighteous) can overflow men and drown them, the emphasis then here being turned onto the words of the righteous in terms of a fast-flowing river.
‘To respect (show favour towards) the person of the wicked is not good,
(Nor) to turn aside the righteous in judgment.'
The words of a judge are in mind here. It would not be good if he showed undue favour towards (literally ‘lifted the face of') the person of the unrighteous, or turned aside, without good reason, the righteous when giving his judgment. It would be a sign that justice was no longer fair and trustworthy. A judge has to be neutral and give his verdict on the basis of the facts, without respect of persons. We could add, if he does not he is unrighteous, and therefore, in Solomon's terms, a fool (Proverbs 17:23).
The stress that YHWH laid on true justice can be found in Exodus 23:2-3; Exodus 23:6-8; Leviticus 19:15; Deuteronomy 25:1; 1 Kings 21:9-22; Isaiah 1:23; Isaiah 10:2; Jeremiah 22:3; Ezekiel 22:12; Amos 5:12. Neither rich nor poor were to be favoured, and bribery was totally condemned.
‘A fool's lips enter into contention,
And his mouth calls for beatings.'
The idea here may be of general contention, or of contention in court. The latter would more specifically explain why his mouth calls for beatings. It was court practise in Israel that if an accuser lost his case over a criminal charge he would receive the punishment that he had wished on his adversary (Deuteronomy 19:17-19). Thus the fool who made false charges would face a beating (compare Proverbs 19:29).
On the other hand Solomon may simply be using that idea as illustrative, and saying that a fool is always so contentious that he calls for beatings, (even if he does not get them), simply because he is usually unjust in his contention (which is what demonstrates that he is a fool). Either way Solomon is expressing his condemnation of the contentious fool.
‘A fool's mouth is his ruin (destruction),
And his lips are the snare of his life.'
He ends the subsection by pointing out that the fool's mouth gives him away and will thus result in his ruin, for his lips are like the jaws of a trap which ensnare his life. Thus he has moved from being in disgrace and subject to reproach, to deserving to be beaten, and to ultimate ruin and death.